PR 5572 
.R5 
1899 
Copy 1 



4 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. CopjTight No. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



RIFLE-CLUBS 



Seventeen copies printed at the Marion Press, 

Jamaica, Queensborough, New- York, 

November, 1899. 






RIFLE -CLUBS 

BY 

/ 

ALFRED TENNYSON 

WRITTEN IN 1859 
NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME PRINTED 



11 




/ 



NEW-YORK 

1899 





l.lb«i-y er Covigrcss, 




Register of CopyrlgHt* 



C(>p}Tif;-lit, 1S!)9, by DoDn, Mead and Company. 
51997 







NOTE. 

^N the ninth of May, eighteen hundred 
fifty-nine, there appeared in the Lon- 
don Times Tennyson's poem, "There 
is a sound of thunder afar," — there 
entitled "The War" and signed simply 
"T." Its authorship was not acknow- 
ledged until long after, nor was it re- 
printed by the author until 1892, when it appeared in 
the volume "The Death of Oenone, Akbar's Dream, 
and other Poems," with the title "Riflemen, Form!" 
and the note "I have been asked to repubhsh this old 
poem, which was first published in ' The Times,' May 
9, 1859, before the Volunteer movement began." 

Doctor Alfi'ed Gatty has said that he received the 
manuscript fi-om Tennyson, on May 5, 1859, "with 
permission that it might appear anonymously in some 
country paper, as the Poet Laureate's name might not 



be attached to a political poem." In that manuscript 
was another stanza, struck out before publication : 

"Form, for France is dumb in her chains; 

"Form, for yours is the one free land; 
"Yours is the one fi-ee voice that remains. 

"Save the voice, and practise the hand." 

At the time it was wi'itten there seemed danger of 
a Continental alliance against England and an inva- 
sion of the British Islands by the French. The poem 
"rang hke a trumpet-call through the length and 
breadth of the Empire," and may have been the 
cause of the order issued by the War Office a few 
days later authorizing the formation of volunteer 
rifle corps. 

Before he WTote and pubhshed this appeal to the 
men of England to rally to the defense of their coun- 
try he had, in the excitement of the times, WTitten a 
more vigorous poem, "Rifle-Clubs," here first printed 
from the original manuscript, which he sent, almost 
before the ink was dry, to Coventry Patmore, from 



whose family it now comes forth to the world. He 
himself says, in a note to the original manuscript, 
"Very wild, but I think too savage! written in about 
2 minutes! The authorship a most deep secret! 
mind, Mr. P.!" 

His better judgment prevailed, however, and that 
poem was not printed. In its place he apparently 
wrote the milder one with the same refi*ain. 



RIFLE-CLUBS 











^^i^ Ji; 




i. 



^ 'V ^ -3^^ 







Riflemen, form, in town and in shire, 

From John O'Groat's house to the wild land's end! 
Practice and fire, practice and fire, — 

God, He knows what an hour may send. 
Ready, be ready, to meet the storm ! 
Riflemen, form! Riflemen, form! 
Riflemen, riflemen, riflemen, form ! 












,tH 




4 






^ 
V^^ 



4 ^ 



^ 



-^ 



V '^5^ ^ 






We thought them friends and we had them here; 

But now the traitor and tyrant rules, 
And Waterloo from year to year 

Has rankled in the hearts of the fools. 

We love peace, but the French love storm; 
Riflemen, form ! Riflemen, form ! 
Riflemen, riflemen, riflemen, form! 




I . 










i <5 ^t~^^ 







Ready, be ready! they mean no good: 

Ready, be ready! the tunes are wild! 
Bearded monkeys of lust and blood 
Coming to violate woman and child! 
We love liberty: they love storm: 
Riflemen, form ! Riflemen, form ! 
Riflemen, riflemen, riflemen, form ! 



Workmen, workmen, away with your strikes ! 
Close with your masters! sound an alarm! 
Get you weapons, muskets and pikes! 

Close with your masters, and arm and arm! 
You love freedom: the French love storm: 
Riflemen, form ! Riflemen, form ! 
Riflemen, riflemen, riflemen, form ! 



fiEC 26 1899 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 546 604 *•' 



